Newb advice on TRX4 battery/charger and low cg tray

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EE geek

RC Newbie
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I'm a newb to RC cars but have been trying to research as much as possible on youtube. I say newb because my last RC experience was with my uncle's Tamiya Hotshot 30ish years ago - I'm sure a few things might have changed in that time :)

I want to get a crawler and going to get a TRX4 defender. By most accounts here and on yt, it's pretty good out of the box. The only thing I want to change for now - though I know that'll likely change... Is putting in a Bowhouse low battery tray.

Given that... I'd really love advice on batteries/charger - any recommendations for...
- battery capacity - is it better to go with higher capacity/heavier to get more run time given that I'll be mounting it lower?
- brands that you've found reliable and that fit in this tray?

I see Traxxas sell a battery/charger "completer kit" with a 4000mAh 11.1v 3-Cell 25C LiPo and charger in it but is there a better way to go with another brand that will fit in that modded tray that is compatible with the TRX4 without surgery? I'm ok spending a bit of money if it gets me a reliable/non explodey battery with good run time and a decent charger.

Many thanks!
 
Don’t buy traxxas over priced batteries and charger. Get a good charger and a couple 3s lipos. I use Ovonic 3s micros off Amazon.
 
I had a low cg tray in my trx4 sport for a while, it will still fit a pretty large battery. I generally run a 3600mah 3s gensacearespammers adventure in that truck. It lasts a looong time!
I dont think i would go much bigger, youll get better performance running a smaller pack, just buy 2 and bring the spare in your pocket if your gonna do a long run.
 
Welcome to the forum.

I highly recommend you stay away from Traxxas batteries and chargers. For what you'd spend on a Traxxas charger and battery setup, you could buy a much better charger and way better batteries.

You won't find a better charger than this one in its price range. It has better specs than anything under $120, has tons of cool features, and has a small footprint. It is a very solid little unit.

And for batteries, look at Liperior or CNHL G+ series. Greywolf's testing has shown those to be the best performers, and they are cheap to boot. One of my drone racer buddies also swears by CNHL, and he is a super dooper electronics nerd of epic perportions, with enough LiPo batteries to put a dark spot on the globe.
 
I run my trx4 and 6 with the battery up front or on the floor pan with the receiver relocated. Biggest battery I run is 2200mah. I feel even that is overkill and run an 850mah most of the time. The way the stock tray is designed you can just run a smaller pack down in the small area and there’s then not much difference between that and the Bowhouse.
For a charger the Hota as mentioned above is really nice. If you’re on a tight budget then a standard 4 button charger from amazon will get you going. You will need to either solder new leads on the battery, esc or both. You can just run some adapters but soldering new connectors is best.
The smaller batteries sizes I mentioned are pretty inexpensive. A 850mah tattu, China hobby or ovonic are maybe 30$ for two. You will want a couple to put in your pocket if you doing some trailing. My front tray will hold a 2200mah ovonic but not any bigger.
 
Thanks all for chipping in - great advice

And love this...
I run my trx4 and 6 with the battery up front or on the floor pan with the receiver relocated. Biggest battery I run is 2200mah. I feel even that is overkill and run an 850mah most of the time. The way the stock tray is designed you can just run a smaller pack down in the small area and there’s then not much difference between that and the Bowhouse.
For a charger the Hota as mentioned above is really nice. If you’re on a tight budget then a standard 4 button charger from amazon will get you going. You will need to either solder new leads on the battery, esc or both. You can just run some adapters but soldering new connectors is best.
The smaller batteries sizes I mentioned are pretty inexpensive. A 850mah tattu, China hobby or ovonic are maybe 30$ for two. You will want a couple to put in your pocket if you doing some trailing. My front tray will hold a 2200mah ovonic but not any bigger.
lower cg AND saving money! :)
 
While we don’t have a TRX-4 (yet) we run a 1300 mah pack in our Capra and get over an hour of crawl time….
 
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